Archive for March, 2007

NewSouth novelist John Pritchard, who made Barnes & Noble’s 2005 Top Ten Sensational Debut Novels list with his book Junior Ray, is a featured author at the Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans this coming weekend. He’ll read from The Yazoo Blues, his hilarious next book due out from NewSouth next spring. Read an excerpt from The Yazoo Blueshere.

In The Yazoo Blues, our antihero leaves law enforcement and becomes a historian. It‚Äôs all gotdam curious, if Junior Ray does say so hisself. John Pritchard’s first novel, Junior Ray, is available directly from NewSouth Books, at Amazon.com, or from your local book retailer.

Longleaf author Roger Reid will be interviewed on Alabama Public Radio as part of Book Week, hosted by Troy University Public Radio in conjunction with the Alabama Public Radio Spring Fundraiser. His segment will air on Tuesday, March 27 at 2:00 p.m.

Reid will discuss the wildlife issues at the heart of his new young adult thriller, Longleaf, and will be selling autographed copies of the book at a special price. Proceeds from all book sales support Alabama Public Radio programming.

Set in the real-life Conecuh National Forest, Longleaf is a terrific adventure story and an excellent introduction to the plants and animals of the Alabama eco-system.

Columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author of the upcoming Poor Man’s Provence from NewSouth Books, spoke this past Thursday at the Alabama Department of Archives and History’s monthly Architreats program. Darryn Simmons of the Montgomery Advertiser wrote, “Johnson answered questions from die-hard fans in the audience that religiously read her weekly column, which appears Mondays in the Montgomery Advertiser. She also kept the crowd laughing as she told stories about her career.” From the article:

Johnson is currently working on a book about the Cajun culture in Louisiana, [Poor Man’s Provence].

“It’s the most different place you can go without a passport,” she said.

Johnson said she found a number of similarities between the French-influenced culture there and the rest of the South, including a common obsession with art and food.

“Where else do you spend hours on preparing a meal besides Paris and Montgomery?” she said.

Alabama Public Radio’s Don Noble has given a glowing review of Tony Dunbar’s recent mystery Tubby Meets Katrina on Noble’s radio program Bookmark. Noble said, “It is always a treat to become acquainted with a new mystery hero. Tubby Dubonnet is such a treat.”

The seventh mystery in the Tubby Dubonnet series, Tubby Meets Katrina tells of Dubonnet’s return to New Orleans, just as Hurricane Katrina hits. In the chaos, an escaped psychopath assaults and then stalks Tubbyï¿½ï¿½ï¿½s daughter. Tubby must use his wits and his connections to protect himself and his family while trying to restore his home and help bring his beloved city back to life. The fast-paced story includes incisive vignettes of the dangerous days just after Katrina hit and of the frustrating weeks that followed.

From the review:

This novel paints a grim picture of the Crescent City in those days, the chaos at the Convention Center and on the interstate overpass, the flooding of the jail, the looting, the mysterious absence of FEMA, the incompetence of state and local authorities.

One of the strengths of the six earlier Dubonnet novels was Dunbar’s detailed, loving description of the city’s pleasures, especially the mouthwatering pleasures of New Orleans food. There is no pleasure and no food in this book. Everyone is eating canned goods or, later, meals ready to eat. Dunbar is a fine describer of food, in the tradition of Hemingway and, more recently, Jim Harrison.

We can hope that when New Orleans gets back somewhere close to normal, upcoming Tubby Dubonnet novels will again be set in the Caf?ï¿½ Du Monde, Antoine’s, and Commander’s Palace, and the characters will again be eating beignets, trout almondine, and oysters Rockefeller.